As the usage of personal computers (PCs) becomes more widespread and the technology to produce them advances, so to does the amount of communication that is enabled by them. Business and personal needs runs on communication and access to data and PCs have become an essential part of the communication path. Further, the advancement of mobile PCs and mobile computing has enabled applications that utilize IP addresses, and further rely on a stable IP address to function properly. As wireless networking continues to evolve, roaming between different wireless networks will become more common place and bring about a change of IP addresses with roaming. A very pertinent example of this problem is exemplified when roaming from a lower bandwidth to a higher bandwidth network. For example, one may start connecting to the network at 3G WAN because he or she is mobile, but would want to switch to a wireless connection such as the higher 802.11n bandwidth when he or she gets home or to the office. New IEEE standards such as 802.21 and 802.11u will standardize this roaming between networks. As client computers roam from one network to another, the network assigns a new IP address that is relevant to the particular network to which the client is connected. This may disturb those applications that rely on a stable IP address.
One solution is the current marketplace is expensive back end server systems. IBM provides such a system, WECM (Websphere Everywhere Connection Manager) that addresses this issue by providing IP address persistence. Information about WECM may be found at ftp colon slash slash ftp dot software dot ibm dot corn slash software slash pervasive slash info slash WECM_V51_ds—062904.pdf However, there are no known inexpensive, widespread solutions to this problem. Further, there are no known client-side implementations of such a solution.
Thus, there exists a need in the art for an inexpensive, client-side method or system which provides stable connections (and a stable IP address) to systems, and thereby applications, that connect to wireless networks. Such a method would ensure that communication methods and data retrieval means remain enabled and useable.